Ukraine's negotiations with Russia continue via teleconference, but have become more difficult since the revelation of the massacres in the northern outskirts of Kiev, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhailo Podolyak said on Friday morning.
Ukrainian officials accuse Russian forces of committing extrajudicial killings in Bukhara, which is located outside Kiev. Moscow denies targeting civilians in Ukraine and has called the deaths in Buka a "monstrous hoax" staged by the West to discredit it.
Podolyak added that any temporary truce in Ukraine would be nothing more than a war postponed for the future. So that is not enough for Ukraine, said Podolyak, a key negotiator on behalf of Kiev.
Humanitarian corridors in Mariupol but with private vehicles
Ukraine said it plans to open up to 10 humanitarian corridors today to evacuate civilians, but residents of Mariupol who want to leave the besieged port city in the south of the country will have to use private vehicles.
The 10 planned safe corridors, announced by Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk, are all in southern and eastern Ukraine.
Vereshchuk also said 4,676 civilians were evacuated from cities across the country yesterday, Thursday.
Numerous attempts to reach an agreement on the safe passage of buses carrying supplies to Mariupol and removing civilians from it have failed since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, with both sides blaming the other.
5,000 civilians have died in Mariupol
According to the mayor of the strategic city on the Sea of Azov, Vadim Boychenko, the number of civilians who have died there stood at around 5.000 a week ago, while tens of thousands are still trapped there without electricity and with few supplies.
Meanwhile, the governor of Lugansk, in eastern Ukraine, said today that Russia is massing forces in the east of the country but has failed to break through Ukrainian defences.
Ukrainian officials say Russian forces are regrouping for a new offensive and that Moscow plans to seize as much territory as it can in the eastern part of Ukraine known as Donbass, on the border with Russia.
Source: in.gr
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